Chandra Levy - Life and Background

Life and Background

Levy was born in Cleveland, Ohio, to Robert and Susan Levy, and grew up in Modesto, California, where she attended Grace M. Davis High School. Her parents, Robert and Susan Levy, are members of Congregation Beth Shalom, a Conservative Jewish synagogue. She attended San Francisco State University, where she earned a degree in journalism. After interning for the California Bureau of Secondary Education and working in the office of Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, she began attending the University of Southern California to earn a master's degree in public administration.

As part of her final semester of study, Levy moved to Washington, D.C., to become a paid intern with the Federal Bureau of Prisons. In October 2000, she began her internship at the bureau's central office, where she was assigned to the public affairs division. Her supervisor, bureau spokesperson Dan Dunne, was impressed with Levy's work, especially her handling of media inquiries regarding the upcoming execution of Timothy McVeigh. In January 2001, she told her landlord that she was considering breaking the lease of her apartment at Dupont Circle to move in with a boyfriend, but changed her mind by the following month because "it didn't work out." Levy's internship was abruptly terminated in April 2001, because her academic eligibility was found to have expired in December 2000. She had already completed her master's degree requirements and was scheduled to return to California in May 2001 for graduation.